1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a recording apparatus, and, in particular, to a recording apparatus of the type including a drum-shaped image forming member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A recording apparatus including a drum-shaped image forming member whose peripheral surface is defined as an image forming surface is well known in the art of electrophotography. In such a recording apparatus, a drum-shaped image forming member is driven to rotate at constant speed, and, as the drum rotates, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the peripheral surface of the drum. Then, the thus formed latent image may be developed to form a visible image which is then transferred to a recording medium such as recording paper. Alternatively, the latent image formed on the peripheral surface of the drum may be transferred to a recording medium, which is then developed to obtain a visible image on the recording medium. Such an image forming member may be either photoconductive or electrically insulating in nature. In the former case, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the image forming member by first uniformly charging the image forming member and then exposing the thus charged image forming member to a light image. On the other hand, in the latter case, use is usually made of a multistylus recording unit for forming an electrostatic latent image on the image forming member with or without prior uniform charging. The image forming member is typically constructed in the form of a drum because it allows to apply various electrophotographic process steps sequentially in repetition with ease.
In such a recording apparatus, a recording medium, typically paper, must be brought into contact with the surface of the drum-shaped image forming member in order to transfer either an electrostatic latent image or a developed image from the image forming member to the recording medium. After transfer, the recording medium must then be peeled off the image forming member. However, when the recording medium is brought into contact with the image forming member, the recording medium strongly adheres to the image forming member due to electrostatic attractive forces, so that provision is usually made of a separating device for positively causing the recording medium to be separated from the image forming member after image transfer. It is often observed that incomplete separation takes place even if such a separating device is provided. Such incomplete separation would cause the recording medium to be stuck to the image forming drum, which is disadvantagous because removing operation of the thus stuck recording medium from the drum is extremely cumbersome. If a user tries to remove the stuck recording medium, a damage could be imparted to the image forming member, necessitating the replacement of image forming members, which is rather costly.